


The Wolf and the Crane

by Sheogorath



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aesop's Fables - Freeform, Gen, update
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-05
Updated: 2013-01-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 16:51:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/624415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheogorath/pseuds/Sheogorath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wolf learns too late not to rip others off in this updated version of a very old story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wolf and the Crane

**Author's Note:**

> The italicised paragraphs in this story can be freely copied and shared without recompense to me because they are only slightly adapted from the original Public Domain text.

## The Wolf and the Crane.

_A wolf had been gorging on an animal he had killed, when a small bone in the meat suddenly got stuck in his throat and he couldn't swallow it. He was soon in a great amount of pain, and ran up and down groaning and seeking for something to relieve it. He tried to induce everyone he met to remove the bone._

_"I will give a large reward to anyone who can take this bone out," he would say._

_At long last, a crane agreed to have a try, and told the wolf to lie on his side and open his jaws as wide as he could. Then the crane put her long neck down the wolf's throat, and loosened the bone with her beak until she finally got it out._

_"Will you kindly give me the reward you promised?" the crane asked politely._

_The wolf grinned and showed his teeth and said, "Be content. You have put your head inside a wolf's mouth and taken it out again in safety; that ought to be reward enough for you."_

The crane said nothing to this, but simply flew off back to her home near a pond, and when the wolf requested that she remove a larger stuck bone some weeks later, she haughtily refused her help.

In a bind now, the wolf slunk away and tried every other method he knew of to get the bone out, but it remained firmly lodged in his throat and eventually killed him when a large piece of meat he was swallowing got jammed on it and asphyxiated him.

Moral: If you rip people off even once, they will be reluctant to treat with you a second time.

**Author's Note:**

> Copyright © 2012 Romersa's Protégé. Individuals and groups are free to copy and share this work for all purposes except large scale distribution, subject to credit being given and any derivatives being released under the same or a similar licence. All other rights reserved.  
> (Adapted from 'Aesop's Fable's: The Wolf and the Crane'; Public Domain.)


End file.
